Mary
by Nighty929
Summary: A story of young love and teenage rebellion, based on XxXFairyQueenXxX's role playing game. A present for Allyg1990
1. Understanding the Truth

Staring up at the white ceiling, feeling the cold engulfing her arms, her legs, her chest, she couldn't move. She struggled against the iron for only a moment, realizing suddenly that she was not in control of this body. This was someone else. This dream, or reality, belonged to someone else. She was used to dreaming other people's dreams already, her parents and their dreams flooded her mind on a regular basis. She was learning how to block them but she was decidedly lazy at it.

But this felt wrong. It wasn't her mother, those were usually accompanied with a warm, pleasant feeling of security and love. It wasn't her father, the dreams he sent were always laced with anger or fear. This was a dream from someone she had never seen, never touched, never talked to. This was HIM. She had been dreaming with him about once a month since she was seven. She could feel his feelings, see what he saw, and they were usually unpleasant. Her mother had said she had made him up, a fourteen year old's fairy tale. But she knew with all her heart he was real.

"Help me," She felt herself murmur in his voice.

-I don't know how,- she thought. –I don't know where you are…-

"Please," she heard him say. "Please, help me."

-I will when you tell me where you are,- she cried desperately, silently. –I can't help you if I can't find you!-

She felt him lift a hand and watched as he picked up a scalpel from the table beside him. Using the cold metal, he sliced through the skin on his arm as easy as a hot knife through butter. "Help me," he said again.

Mary felt herself scream as she sat bolt upright in bed, an eerie wet feeling trickling down her arm. Within moments her mother was at her side, her father in the doorway. "Mary?" her mother asked worriedly. "Honey, what happened?"

She slowly lifted the arm he had cut. An identical thin, deep slice was in her own arm, blood running to her shoulder as she struggled to breath. Her alien eyes flickered to a bright green as she looked from the cut to her mother, then to her father who had taken several steps forward. "Mimi, we should get her to the infirmary," her father said, his eyes matching Mary's.

"Hush, Kevin," her mother responded. "Mary, did you do this?"

Mary shook her head, finally taking a breath.

"Don't lie to me," she said warningly. She pushed her daughter's rainbow hair, inherited from her mother, out of her marble-white face.

"It… it was him," she murmured through a shuddered sob. "Mom, you have to believe me, he needs my help!"

"Oh, Mary…" Mimi shook her head in exasperation. "Not this again. He's not real, baby. If he was, we would feel him, too. It's okay, Mary. He doesn't exist."

Mary wiped a tear away with the back of her hand. "He is, and he needs me."

Kevin put a hand on Mimi's shoulder. "Maybe he is, Mary," He said softly. "But how are you going to help him? You don't know where he is or even what his name is." Mimi glared at his encouragement of this topic, but he ignored her. "Just try not to think about it, okay?"

She nodded. She didn't feel like arguing with her father at the moment; she never won.

"Is that deep, or are you okay cleaning it up yourself?" Mimi asked, touching the cut. "I can heal it if you want me to." Mary nodded, and a Mimi generated a few rose quartz stones to heal the wound. Mary turned away from her mother's kiss and her father's hug and sighed as they left and closed the door. She could talk to TJ about it tomorrow.

…………………………..

"So he cut your arm," TJ said, leaning over his lunch and taking a bite. No matter what the crisis was, no matter how much Mary needed him to pay attention, Timothy Justin Wagner was ALWAYS eating. "From… where, exactly?"

"I still don't know, he never tells me where he is," she said, shaking her hair from her face and sighing. "But somehow he didn't feel so far away as he usually did last night."

"Like how you said it feels like you two are worlds apart." He nodded, talking with his moth full. "So he was closer?"

"Yeah, but not very close, just not as far as before."

"I have no idea what that means, but that's okay," TJ took another bite. "I never understand what you're talking about, anyway. Want some?"

"No thanks," Mary said, grimacing at TJ's idea of food. "I think I feel sick enough, thank you."

"Hi!" came a chipper voice from the doorway.

"Oh, no," TJ and Mary groaned at the same time. TJ's little brother Colby came running into the room, jumping into a chair and giggling. "Mom says you have to clean your room, TJ."

"She's not my mom," he grumbled, getting up anyway.

"Well, MY mom wants you to clean your room right nowwww," Colby said.

"She can't tell me what to do," TJ groaned as he left the room. "See you, Mary."

"Bye," Mary waved, realizing who she was left with. "Um, Colby, I have homework to do, bye!"

"Play with me," the seven year old tugged insistently on her sleeve. "Please, Mary, no one else will."

"I wonder why," she sighed. "Okay. But you tell your dad he owes me."

………………………..

"You… OWE… me," Mary growled at Kurt Wagner as he flipped a hotdog on the stove. "BIG time."

"Really, what did TJ do now?" Kurt turned the hotdog over again. "Think this is finished?"

"TJ is at least tolerable," she said. "It's Colby. He never gets tired, I swear! It's like he has the energizer bunny built into his head!"

"Well, it must be Kitty's fault," he said. "If TJ is tolerable and Colby is a nuisance."

"Not saying that TJ isn't a nuisance," grumbled Mary. "Yeah, that's done."

He picked up the hotdog and threw it onto the plate next to him, immediately putting his fingers in his mouth. "Ow," he said. Then he spat out some of his fur. "NOW I see what Kitty's TALKING about!"

Mary giggled and patted his head. "Poor sweetie."

…………………………..

She found herself curled in a small cell, sitting in the corner trying to keep warm. The thin blanket around her shoulders barely kept her warm. She realized that she was again with him. This was the second night in a row, something that had never happened before. She felt his fear, his loneliness, his desperation for rescue. She silently wept for him.

"You're back," he said.

-You have to tell me your name,- she whispered to him. –You have to tell me where you are.-

"Roran Yu," he said softly. "My name is Roran Yu. Please, help me."

She tried to place a name like that, remembering it from somewhere, something her father told her once. –Where are you?-

"I don't know," he said. "Shh, someone's coming."

She heard the footsteps and saw through his eyes as he glanced up from under his hair. It was a tall man wearing an army uniform, a US army uniform. "Alright, alien," he said. "You want to talk today?"

She felt him shake his head.

"I guess you aren't hungry, then," He said, putting away his keys. "The doctors will be around to continue testing later, freak. See you then."

-Roran,- Mary asked. –Are you in Area 51?-

"I have heard that before," he said, watching the soldier leave. "I need to get out of here."

-I'm coming to get you,- she said.

……………………..

TJ woke up, startled by the sudden noise in the window. He sat up and rubbed his eyes as another rock smacked against the glass. Getting up, he opened the window and looked out. "Mary," he hissed. "You had better have a good reason for this!"

"We're going to rescue Roran," she called up. "Come on!"

"Who?" he growled, but he pulled on a pair of jeans and sneakers, making his way out the window and down the tree. "I was having a good dream," he moaned as Mary threw a bag over his shoulder. "Wait—where are we going?"

"Nevada," she said. "We're going to Nevada. If mom won't listen, I have to do SOMETHING."

"Oh boy," TJ said. "I'm coming, I'm coming."

_So what do you guys think? This is sort of a present for Ally and will only make sense to those that play or read XxXFairyQueenXxX's roleplaying game. But review please!_


	2. Bonnie and Clyde

Hey everybody, here's chapter two of Mary's saga, all for Ally!! I don't own Kurt, Kitty, or Doritos.

TJ woke up and took in a huge whiff of train smell, that mix of polyester and cell phones and laptops burning in people's laps. He opened his eyes and found the left side of his face plastered against the window pane and pulled it off, sighing at the brief pain. He couldn't believe he was actually doing this. He couldn't believe this was the fourth time Mary Chorli was going to get him grounded. He glanced across from him, watching her doze as the train's movements rocked back and forth, and couldn't imagine why he ever did anything with her besides the fact that she was completely and unearthly beautiful.

He looked away from her quickly, glancing around the train. Three more stops to go, three missed calls from his father. He looked at his cell phone again and groaned. Four missed calls from his father. He was so dead when he got home. _Mary,_ he thought. _How the HELL do you talk me INTO these things?_

Mary, sleeping, dreamed and found herself being pulled to Roran Yu again. She saw again through his eyes, staring around the small hospital-scrub clean room. –I'm here,- she said softly. –Don't be scared.-

"I'm terrified," she heard him whisper. "They want to cut me open."

-I know, just stay calm, I'm coming for you.-

"Please hurry," he said, squirming a little in his restraints.

Her eyes opened and she saw TJ, trying to remember where she was. Then she realized she was still on the train to Nevada. "TJ," she said softly. He continued to stare at his phone in grim agony. "TJ, are you alright?"

"Huh?" he looked up and smiled at her. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. My dad's been trying to call me. He's um, called me four… five times."

"I know, it's taking everything I've got to block off my part of the Life streak," Mary sighed. "I can't let them know where I am, they'll come and get me and I won't be able to rescue Roran Yu."

"What is your obsession with this guy?" TJ asked. "I mean, you don't even know him. How do you know he even exists?"

"I know," she said. "Just trust me."

"You always tell me to trust you," TJ sighed. "And for some reason, I always do."

She smiled and tilted her head to the side, sending her rainbow-colored hair cascading over her shoulder like a waterfall of sunshine. TJ shook his head.

"Don't smile at me, I'm mad at you."

"For what?"

"For getting me in trouble," TJ snapped. "I'm always getting in trouble because of you. Do you have any idea what my Dad's going to DO to me when I get back home?"

"You're lucky," she mumbled. "You only have ONE parent to punish you. Do you know I get one punishment for each parent?"

"Lucky, huh?" He said. "Kitty's as bad as him, you know. With the worrying and the grounding."

"You should really try to give her a chance," Mary suggested, getting up and sitting next to him. "She really cares, you know, and your dad loves her an awful lot."

"She doesn't even know me," TJ grumbled.

"She's been with your dad eight years," Mary said softly. "Why are you still mad at them?"

"Because my dad can find the time for her and Colby," he said. "But he won't even tell me my mom's name. I just want to know what her name was."

Mary sighed and looked out the window, worrying for her friend. She never knew what to say to him when he was like this. She wished there was something she could do to help him, like he always managed to find a way to help her. Out of all of her friends at school, her cheerleader buddies and giggling fan squad, it was this geek who she trusted with her deepest secrets and darkest fears.

Sometimes she wondered if that was weird.

……………………………………..

"This is our stop," Mary said as she poked TJ in the ribs. TJ jerked awake and glanced at his phone again. "How many?"

"Jesus Christ, dad, if I don't answer the phone the FIRST thirty-two times, I'm not going to answer the THIRTY-THIRD time!"

"Wow, I thought my mom was bad," Mary laughed as she stood up and grabbed her bag. "Gosh I'm stiff. How long have we been on this train?"

"Forty-nine hours," TJ groaned and stood, stretching his arms and yawning widely. "Hey, we've been missing two days, that's a record for us. High five, Bonnie."

"High five, Clyde," she giggled and smacked her friend's palm.

"We should find something other than Doritos to eat," TJ sighed, putting a hand on his growling stomach. "I am seriously ready to die of hunger."

"Aren't you always," Mary said. "Come on, we'll pick up something on the way."

"So… how do you plan to FIND the secret military base, anyway?" TJ asked as they got off the train. "That might be the only glitch in your plan. Besides the getting in, breaking out this alien, and maybe the getting out. Yeah, this whole plan is off, Mary."

"I know," she said softly. "But I do know how to find it."

"Really."

"Yes," she said. "I just follow Roran's call…"

There's chapter two!! Okay off to figure out how many guards it takes to kill two teenagers…


	3. Roran Yu

_Note and Disclaimer: Here is a brief note to those readers that don't play on the RPG this is based on. The only real link to the X-Men Evolution universe at this stage of the story is TJ Wagner, the boy Kurt Wagner brought home after leaving the institute for seven years. The history of the show is still there, Mary and TJ having been born a couple of years after the end of season four. The two alien races this story revolves around were created solely by me, Deep Ones and Vaporai, two races that have been warring for hundreds of thousands of years over a matter of Vaporai blood and Deep One addiction to it. Mary is half Deep One, half mutant, both of her parents living in the institute. Other details will be described as the story goes on, as I am not in the mood to write a three page report on the history right now. Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men Evolution Universe, Bayville, Kurt Wagner, or any of the X-Men characters, or this version of Area 51. These things belong to the happy people at Marvel._

Mary shivered as she waited for TJ to return. She knew this was the place, she felt Roran more powerfully than ever, as if she could see him, or touch him, just a few hundred feet beneath her. She pulled her friend's jacket around her shoulders tightly; the desert was terribly cold at night. Her body temperature, though normally low anyway, was easily manipulated by her surroundings, and her blood felt like ice in her veins. She shuddered and rubbed her arms, hugging them close to her chest.

She was startled as she suddenly felt his hand on her shoulder, whirling around and putting her fists out in front of her. "Hey, hey," TJ said softly. "It's just me, calm down." He smiled his strange half-smile, waving a little and looking rather proud of himself. She usually hated and feared that look, but it felt amazing now, knowing it meant he had found something good.

She sighed and hugged him, thankfully feeling his warm dark brown hair on her cheek, then pushed away, holding his shoulders urgently and looking into his eyes, her own shining a hopeful burgundy instead of the usual deep black. "Did you find anything?"

"There's a ventilation grate not far from here," he said, pointing north-east, then looking back at her looking for a sign of reward for his agonizing walk. "It took a lot of walking to find it, but I marked it, it shouldn't be to hard to find again. Plus there's this huge rock right on the way…"

"Thanks, let's go," Mary said, taking his hand and pulling him along. He muttered in pity of himself, wondering how Mary had roped him into this. He wondered how she ALWAYS roped her into these things.

"Careful," hissed Mary, pushing a violet strand out of her face as she watched TJ climb down the latter. "The alarms could go off any minute, we have to be fast."

"Fast fast, snappy snappy," TJ said, rolling his eyes.

"I'm serious, T," she said, taking his hand. "Please, be serious for me. If we get caught, we will be dead. And I won't ever save Roran. So for once in your life, just chill, okay?"

"Chilling," TJ held up his free hand, a little hurt. "Scout's honor."

"I mean it, Timothy," she said sternly.

"I'm BEING serious."

"Whatever, come on." She let go of his hand and closed her eyes, feeling around blindly for Roran Yu's mind. She trusted his mind and wanted so desperately to be a part of it again. The connection they somehow shared made her feel safe and secure in a way no other bond ever had.

She felt his presence and latched on quickly, pushing into his mind and suddenly seeing through his eyes. The doctors had not come yet. They still had time. _Roran, I'm here,_ she whispered to him softly.

"Hurry," he said frantically, pulling at the restraints. "They're going to hurt me. Hurry!"

_Calm down and stay put, I'll find you,_ She said, sending calming thoughts towards him. "TJ," she said in a hushed voice. "Come on, this way."

"Did you stop to wonder why he's DOWN here in the first place?" he complained as he followed her. "I mean, come on. Maybe he's down here for a reason, how can you trust this guy?"

"I just do, okay?" Mary was becoming annoyed with TJ, very normal at this stage of joint misbehavior. "Haven't… haven't you ever just… TRUSTED someone? Like… for no reason, you just know you can trust them?"

"Ah, no," he said matter-of-factly.

"Not even your dad?"

"Definitely not."

"Okay, then," Mary said, sighing in exasperation. "In here."

"In… where…?" TJ stopped in awe as she pushed open an iron door. The room was cleaner than any medical facility he had ever seen, surfaces literally sparkling brightly like a cleaner commercial. On the metal operating table, which Mary was already rushing to, was a teenage boy, around fifteen, with shock-white hair and deathly pale skin, odd blue parallel stripes on his cheeks, arms, and legs, like stripes. He opened his eyes as Mary touched his hand, sky blue and cat-like, looking around frantically until he saw Mary's face.

"Is that… Roran Yu?" he asked hesitantly. "What is it?"

"You are Deep One," Roran shouted, frightened and trying to push away from Mary. "Get away from me, get away!"

"Um, not as warm a welcome as I expected," TJ said softly.

"Shut up, TJ," Mary hissed. "No, no I'm not a Deep One, I'm half, but I'm not here to hurt you. I don't need blood. Are you a Vaporai?"

He hesitated, then nodded. "You don't… take the blood from my people? You are not emotionless?"

"I have more emotion than I know what to do with," she laughed. "Come on, let's get you out of here. TJ, can I borrow your jacket again?"

"Sure," he said, stung by her earlier dismissal. He wasn't liking this Roran guy any more than he had two days ago.

She got him out of the restraints and put the jacket around his shoulders. "Your skin is cold," Roran gasped as her hand brushed against his arm.

"I'm half Deep One, remember?" she said softly, helping him stand. "Deep Ones have an average body temperature of 27.9 degrees Fahrenheit. Come on, let's go. TJ, help me."

TJ put Roran's other arm around his shoulders, and together they stumbled into the hallway. "Now," TJ said quietly. "To get back to the vent without tripping an alarm. What do you say we bet a dollar, Mary? I say we get shot at at LEAST once before we get out of here, if we even make it out at all."

"TJ…" Mary growled.

"Shutting up now."

Roran winced with every step, his breath forming in clouds in front of his face as he shivered on the support of the other two. Mary studied the side of his face with interest, looking at the horizontal blue stripes and his oddly elongated and pointed ears. She had never seen a Vaporai before, though her father the exile Deep One had told her much about the slaughter of their race. The Deep Ones needed the blood of these people, people as real as Mary, so they simply took it.

TJ watched Mary study Roran's face, feeling a warm sensation in his ears, and suddenly realizing his ears were probably bright red. He was glad the lights in the hall were dim, so Mary couldn't see. She knew that when his ears were red he was either having an allergic reaction or he was upset, and he didn't want any questions right now, not knowing the answer to those questions himself. His distraction was broken by a clattering sound behind them.

"Hurry up," TJ said, looking behind him. "I think I hear…"

Roran's ears twitched violently as his head shot up and his eyes flew open. "The alarms are--!"  
The alarms screamed to life, making Mary and TJ jump and turn their heads. Armed soldiers now surrounded them on every side, guns pointing at them from every angle. Mary gasped in fear as she glanced at TJ.

"Oh shit," TJ breathed.

_Sorry it's so short, but I needed a cliff hanger! Hee hee hee, just kidding, but seriously, what do you guys think? Please review!_


	4. Escape and Groundings

"Freeze," shouted one of the guards. TJ's mind raced as the guns surrounded them, his forehead dripping with cold sweat, his hands shaking. Guns, guns, he hated guns. He could hardly hold on to individual thoughts. Mary looked at him worriedly. The last time he had been faced with a gun, he had fainted. And that was just one gun. She had to do something fast.

Roran reacted almost faster than Mary could, whirling in a circle to get a good count of the guards, then pushing his hands out to either side of him, a dim blue pulse radiating out and knocking the guards unconscious. Mary stared around at the sleeping men in awe, then turned to the Vaporai. "How did you…?" she began, then realized he had collapsed. "Roran!" She rushed to his side, helping him back to his feet. TJ, taking his other arm, motioned for Mary to hurry. "They might still wake up," he said.

She nodded, and they hurried down the corridor and out of sight.

One of the guards stirred, looking around as he sat up. "What… happened?" he murmured. "Can't… remember…"

"Come on," TJ whispered urgently as Mary helped Roran up the ladder. "Hurry."

"I'm moving as fast as I can," Mary hissed back. "Help me with him."

"What did he do to those guards?" TJ asked as he pulled Roran through the small opening. "Hope he didn't kill them."

"He didn't," she said, climbing out herself. "He wiped their memory of all three of us. They're probably waking up right now."

"How do you know that?" TJ raised an eyebrow, still a little shaken from the experience with the guns.

"Roran knows, so I know," she said, shrugging. "I don't know how to explain it. It's a… I'll tell you later, let's just go."

"Are we taking another train…?" TJ began to ask, but Mary wasn't listening anymore, looking into the dawn sky as a jet approached slowly. "The blackbird," he said softly. "Crap."

"How did they find us?" Mary whispered.

"Who cares," TJ moaned as the Blackbird landed. "All that matters is, we're finally in trouble."

…………………………………

"What were you THINKING?!"

TJ sank further into the jet seat, cringing away from his angry father. "I…" he said, searching for an excuse.

"I had a heart attack last year," Kurt continued, still yelling. "Do you understand the strain you've put on me? You run off, disappear for over two days, and what am I supposed to do?!"

"Dad," TJ murmured.

"Don't give me an excuse, I don't want to hear it," Kurt growled. "What you did was extremely selfish, and cruel. You weren't even thinking of the consequences, were you? You didn't even think once, as usual."

"Dad," TJ said again, a little louder.

"You think I'm mad now, wait til my pill wears off," Kurt said. "Then I'll be able to think of a punishment."

"Dad!" TJ shouted.

"What?!"

"It was Mary's idea," he said sheepishly. "I was just trying to make sure she stayed, you know, safe."

"Smooth, you little rat," Mary muttered angrily.

"Don't think you're going to get off easy this time, Mary," Kurt said, pointing at her. "Your father is so mad steam's coming out of his ears, and he's 20 degrees on his inside. You're mom looks like she's finally ready to kill you. I've been waiting for that, she's been putting up with you for way too long not to kill you one day."

Mary sighed as she pulled her knees up to her chest, rolling her eyes.

"We're almost home," Scott called from the pilot's seat.

Hank looked up from taking care of Roran in the back of the jet. "Try to land gently." He said. "I don't think he should be waking up yet."

"Is there anything wrong with him?" Mary asked, looking back at him.

"Not that I can see," he said. "He seems to have quite a fever, around 102 degrees, but otherwise he seems fine."

"So, Mary," Kurt said. "Your alien's real. Now what?"

She shrugged. "I get grounded, I guess."

…………………………………

"You are so much worse than grounded."

Kurt had been right about how angry her parents were. Mary looked from one to the other, afraid for her life. Her father had already hit her upside the head, and the only reason he hadn't continued was because Kurt had been in the room. Now, he wasn't. She was waiting to be hit again.

"Do you have any idea how _worried _we were?" her mother said angrily. "How _afraid_?"

"You're going to be watched," her father said. "All day, all night, from now on. Your mother and I must always know where you are at all times or we will assume you're breaking the rules. Am I clear?"

"Crystal," Mary muttered.

"Good," Her father said, opening the door to her bedroom to step out into the hallway. "Mimi, are you coming?"

"In a minute," her mother said, brushing her rainbow hair out of her face. Her father closed the door. "Mary," Mimi said softly. "I am extremely disappointed in you. Do you understand?"

Mary nodded.

"Talk to me, sweetheart," her mother pleaded. "Don't start giving me the silent treatment, I can't take it from both you and your father today."

Mary looked at her mother for a moment. "He was real," Mary said quietly. "And I found him."

"You found him," she said, kissing her daughter on the cheek. "And now your grounded. I hope you understand how serious what you did was, Mary."

"I understand, Momma," she said. Mimi smiled; Mary hadn't called her Momma in years. "I'm sorry, too."

"I forgive you." Mimi hugged her daughter, holding the girl as close as she could, glad she didn't lose her. When she pulled away, she frowned. "Your father is another matter, Mary, he's very angry with you."

Mary nodded. "Yeah yeah, I know." She smiled. "Don't worry, I can handle daddy, I'll be fine."

"I used to say that, too," Mimi whispered as she got up. "Don't be so sure. Good night, angel."

"Night, mom." Mary said as her mother closed the door.

………………………………….

Yayay, all done with another chapter, please review!


	5. Happy Ending? Not for you

_I wanted to update NeXt Gen now, but I don't have the whole story outlined yet, so I'll do a chapter of Mary._

Roran opened his big, blue cat eyes, pupils thinning as the bright light burned into him. There was something wrong with the air here. It was too moist, and too thick. He tried to breathe in and coughed. What was wrong with the air?

He remembered the half-Deep One girl that had saved him from the bad men who had wanted to cut her open. Deep One, he thought as he shuddered. Those monsters. He knew he shouldn't trust her. But he had heard about a few Deep Ones who were not addicted to the blood. He had heard of the Underground. Some of them were indeed on Earth, maybe she was the result of one of them mating with an Earth person. He considered that for a while, eyes adjusting to the white room. That would give him the window he needed to trust that strange… should he leave it at strange?... girl.

He wanted to trust her, more so than anyone he had ever known. The girl had saved her. The girl (_Mary_, he corrected himself) seemed nice, at least. Mary. Such an odd name for someone who looked like _them._ He expected a Deep One girl to be called something like Warsa, or Kainen. Something guttural and ugly, just like the lot of those Deep Ones.

He was startled from his silent thoughts by movement in the doorway. The white hair on the back of his head stood straight out as he sat up, eyes now staring hard at a man. A Deep One, he thought, a hissing sound coming from deep in his catlike throat. The Deep One put up his hands to show he was unarmed, and took a step back. "Tarlain ventura," he said in Vaporian. _No harm._ His Vaporian was broken and shaky, but it put him at ease. A Deep One on the blood wouldn't bother to speak to him in that language. "Do you speak English of this planet?" he asked in the common tongue of Earth.

"Yes," he responded. He was still distrusting of this dark haired person, backing closer to the wall. "I speak… _English._"

"My name is Kevin," he said, hoping to make him more trusting by using his human name. Roran raised his eyebrows skeptically.

"Yet another odd name for your kind," he said. "Tell me your true name. I can smell your lies, remember."

"Wraith Chorli," he said quickly.

At the mention of that surname, Roran pushed himself completely against the wall, hissing fiercely and letting this Wraith Chorli know exactly what he thought of him.

"Please," Kevin begged. "Calm down!"

"Murderer," he said in a dark hissed whisper. "Your family is the worst."

"I killed Jonar Chorli," he said loudly, over the Vaporai's hisses. "I killed him. The leader of the Deep Ones. I was the cause of the massive structural breakdown of the politics in Deep One society."

Roran fell completely silent. "You are free?"

"I am free," he said. "No blood."

Roran sniffed the air. There was no lie in his words. "I believe you," he said. "Where is this place?"

"This is called Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters," Wraith, or Kevin, replied. "It is a haven for humans that are different, and now for people like us; aliens on this planet, with no home."

"I have a…" Roran began hotly, then stared at the ground. "I… _had _a home."

"What happened to you?" Kevin asked, pulling a chair over and sitting down. "Why were you in that place in Nevada?"

"Our ship crashed," Roran said. "I was the only one to survive. A group of soldiers found me begging for water. They put me there, they called me… an extra terrestrial. I wondered what that meant. Then I realized we must have hit this planet by mistake, came out the wrong wormhole."

"Ah yes," the Deep One said. "The famous wormholes of the Vaporai. The highways of space."

"Yes," he said. "But we had a damaged ship. The Deep Ones barely lost us."

"Where was your ship going?"

"To a haven in New Gesten," Roran said. "We had received word from an Underground Deep One there that it was safe for my family to arrive. We were ambushed, the whole thing was a trap."

"I'm sorry," Kevin said softly. "How many…?"

"Twelve," he said. "Twelve of us. All dead, save me."

Kevin thought for a long time. Then he looked up at Roran, studying him. "I will do my best to contact a Vaporai ship that can come and get you," he said. "But for now, you are safe here."

"Thank you," the young Vaporai said, nodding.

"Can I see him?" Mary asked immediately after her father stepped out into the Infirmary waiting room. "Can I? Is he okay?"

"He's fine, Callete," he said, using his Deep One name for her. He only did that either when he was really mad or really proud. She knew he wasn't proud. So…

"You're in trouble young lady," he said, scowling as she attempted her puppy dog face. "Don't be cute with me. Maybe if you were still six, but not now."

"I'm not trying to be cute," she lied.

"Don't, Callete, not now."

She cringed. Her father always had time to at least argue with her. "What?" she said. "What is it?"

"Nothing," he said. "Just… just leave me alone." He pet her hair for a moment, then waved her away. "I need to think."

She nodded. Her father and thinking time went hand in hand. She stood and left, bumping into TJ. "Hey," she said. "How's it… what happened to your hair?"

A white streak hung across his forehead, plain as day. It contrasted greatly with his brown hair. "I don't know," he said. "It just… I was in the bathroom brushing my hair and…"

"Maybe your powers are finally kicking in," she said happily. "All of your worries about late blooming were for nothing!"

"My skin feels weird," he said, rubbing his hands. "Like… crawling."

"Really?" she said, taking one of his hands. "Let me see."

He watched her run her fingers along his palm, and he shivered. She was touching him, that didn't used to bother him but it really did now. No… it didn't bother him. It made him ache in a way he couldn't understand. Deep in his chest, like a throbbing… it was his heart beating.

Before he could stop himself, he moved his hand out of hers and swept a lock of violet hair from in front of her face. She looked up at him as he ran his fingers down her cheek, barely touching her. "W-what are you doing…?" she whispered, feeling the light brush of his skin.

"I have to tell you," he said. "I have to tell you that I don't like this Roran… I don't like him because I…"

"TJ…?" she closed her eyes as he slipped his arms around her waist.

"I think I…" he leaned forward so that his nose touched hers. "Mary, I…"

She started to pull away. "TJ, stop it," she whispered feebly.

"Don't go," he pleaded, pulling her back.

"Stop it," but she wasn't trying any more as he brushed his lips against hers. She leaned up into a kiss that took her breath away.

And something else.

TJ was dimly aware that images were flooding into his mind, of playing out in the sun with Momma, of sitting in Daddy's lap, of eating smiley pancakes with Uncle Kurt, learning to write the Deep One language from uncle Cozac. He gasped as Mary became limp after a small struggle, and he backed his face away, catching her as she fell, eyes closed.

"Mary?" he asked softly. "Mary?"

She didn't wake up.

"Mary!" he screamed. "Oh, God, Mary!"

_Dun dun DUUUNNN_


End file.
